The number of people eligible or allowed to work from home in the U.K. could see a large rise in the coming months. Legislation set out last year by the government, known as The Flexible Working (Procedural Requirements) Regulations 2002, come into effect on April 6th this year.

The regulations have been put in place to try and make the conditions of work better for employees. Parents with young children will now have some choice in the hours that they work–including when they start and finish–and will also have the option to request permission to work from home. Current government figures estimate 3.7 million parents will be eligible under the new regulation.

This could potentially see a boom in the take-up of broadband, as more companies subsidize home broadband connections for their employees to allow both connection to work related information and telephone services over IP.

The U.K. government has also released a guide for both employers and employees (PDF format) regarding the new regulations. As well as detailing the application process, the guide also discusses the benefits of flexible working hours, including more satisfied employees, better productivity, decreased absenteeism, and increased staff retention.

MATTHEW'S OPINION
Flexible working hours in many people's eyes are on top of the agenda when choosing a job (next to salary, of course). In fact, I think that I would choose a job that paid a little less if it provided good flexible working practices.

There are many benefits to working from home for both employers and employees. People don't have to travel, which cuts down congestion on the roads and on public transport networks. Employees are more relaxed because they have more time, less stress, and enjoy their job more. It also removes office politics and the potential for employees to not get along in a crowded office. Parents require time off work to look after children, but if they can work from home then employers do not have to lose time to maternity leave, say, as the employee can continue to work (though probably with reduced hours).

It is true that a lot of jobs cannot be done by someone working at home because they involve a lot of interaction face to face. With the continuing increase of computers in the workplace and the rate at which technology is breaking down communication barriers, there are fewer jobs that cannot be done in this fashion. Video conferencing is still in its infancy, but the adoption of broadband and the increasing bandwidth home users are allowed means it is viable.

Security is a major issue for a lot of companies, though. If products are being developed that have intellectual property associated with them then it is much easier to contain information if it is in a single office. A distributed system which includes people's homes is not seen as safe, and will put many companies off teleworking.

USER COMMENTS 9 comment(s)

Have you tried working from Home with Kids?(10:49am EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I know that everybody expects that this is a great thing, that you can be home taking care of your children while working, but has anybody actually done this.

I worked from home a couple of days and got nothing done. The kids (1 & 2 at the time) thought that Daddy should be playing with them. I ended up waiting until they went to bed and burning the midnight oil. By the time your children are old enough to realize that you are working, they are off to school and it really doesn't matter anymore. – by Salaryman

I agree…(11:05am EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I've never get much done at home and I dont' like having to worry about work at “home”. and I think people should consider this before doing the “work from home” thing.

if you lose the feeling of “home”, then you will lose the joy of life. – by familyman

You don't need kids ….(12:44pm EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I leave alone, with my dog. There are just too many distractions. I have to get out of the house and to the office an act which reminds me why I'm doing this.I've know only a few people that are successful at this. Two have seperate buildings on their property they call offices and three are successful artists.I figure you want a seperate office free of distractions (ie. TV, kids, pets, video games). And this may sound funny but white walls and flourescent lighting, make me at least think I'm in an office. I once read an article that recommended buying cubicle walls. – by LaughALot

Separation is the key(1:53pm EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I work at home a fair bit – but my “study” (office) is a workplace during the day and some evenings.I have broadband (so called – only 512kbps in the UK) which helps but I do have to visit work every couple of days just to see what's going on.Verbal communication in a corridor or car park is a key part of the way we run our business lives – and IMHO video conferencing is only useful for semi-formal interviews. – by Tribal

It works for me(6:55pm EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I've been working from home some days a week for years and it's wonderful, especially since broadband.

I roll out of bed and power up the PC and then shower and make coffee and so on. I work in old clothes, make a snack when I feel like it, turn up the radio. I often split my day by taking a longish break midafternoon when I'm starting to get tired and then going back to work afterwards. You can't do any of those things at the office.

I teleconference into meetings, share my desktop when I'm working with someone, and use email and IM to communicate.

We've pretty much given up on videao-conferencing. Only the Big Boss thinks that his words of wisdom need a “talking head”.

Everyone I know who's stuck with teleworking believes that they get more done on their home days than their office days. You quickly learn to go into “work mode” in your home office, just like you do at the company office.

Don't be so quick to knock it. – by greg

2 years(11:59pm EST Mon Mar 31 2003)I've worked from home for 2 years and go into an office rarely the last year or so.My chair has a crotch stain from where I sit naked for the 3 hours before I get around to putting pants on. – by ihavenokids

I've been doing it for 10 years.(9:04am EST Tue Apr 01 2003)And I'm a coach who helps others work from home too. It's definitely harder with little kids, but can be done with some good work/life boundaries. And it is SO Worth IT!! – by lifeforcecoaching.co

I hesitated posting here. (9:52am EST Tue Apr 01 2003)In '92 by DP firm sent everyone home. We had been working with individual employees for years on this subject. Our reasoning was that we had downtown main street office space that cost a lot per sq/ft. We had a 3 month training program already in place for new employees. We had been working for about a year with our best employees on teaching them how to work at home. Our hours are very flexible. When we first went into business, we set up an inhouse day care as a draw for new moms who worked at law firms who wanted to stay with their infants. In '90s when we moved into the medical market we wanted to draw hospital employees who because of medical problems could no longer work in the hospital setting. It was ideal for them to attempt work at home. Working at home is not for everyone or every business. The business needs to have quantifiable work (ie # of records processed) and pay by piece. In our case, the worker gets a certain amount of work to be completed by a time. We don't care what hours you work, but the work must be completed on time, no exceptions. This makes the employee “getting down to work” financially rewarding. The employee must put everything else aside while working. There can be no wash, kids, cleaning whatever. However, if the employee gets down to work, they can complete their days work in about 2 hours. Paying by piece means they can make good money in a short period of time (ie ave. $70/hr). If they screw around and it takes them 8 hours then they are going to make about $15/hr. Now we are hiring more stay at home Moms in the medical field.Since we started out in the legal field, then added engineering and finally medical, we have a very strict code for keeping work safe. A lot of our work is done for the court and state.Our business has made this transition very nicely, and it has been financially rewarding, but it is not for every business. I suggest that anyone considering this look at your present training program and devise a at home training program. Start by sending home some of your best employees for short periods of time. The company has to be prepared to support the employee and the hardware/software in their home, otherwise it will not work. – by tech

Working at Home!(10:16pm EST Mon Feb 21 2005)May you give me an update on working at home in the UK? I'm about to propose this concept to my government and I need all the help I can get. I am a work at home mom. I've been doing it for three years now and it kills me that so many mothers are loosing out of their childrens rearing because they are working long ungodly hours due to our high economy and being forced to work like this. Hence, these children are growing up with out much supervision from their parents, especially mothers, in their formative years and causing havoc now on our community because they have no respect for their parents or any sense of authority and I know it's linked to the mother and child bond lost through these working hours. May some one reply back? I know it has been almost two years since this particular story was run but that's ok the subject is still relevant today. – by Peacemaker